China welcomes the reconciliation realized between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in Beijing at a routine press conference Thursday.

Liu said the Chinese side will, as always, promote friendly and reciprocal cooperation with Sudan when asked to comment on the comprehensive reconciliation deal signed in Cairo last Saturday between the Sudanese government and the opposition NDA, a move believed to change the political landscape of the conflict-ridden African country.

The agreement, inked by the Sudan's First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and NDA leader Mohamed Osman al-Merghani, ends 16 years of hostilities between Khartoum and the country's largest opposition group.

The NDA, an umbrella opposition group, includes a dozen or so largely northern political parties, trade union representatives and the southern insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

Liu cited the agreement as another major achievement scored by the Sudanese government in the process of its national reconciliation after peace was realized between the north and the south of the country at the beginning of this year.

"It is conducive to the promotion of stabilization of the situation in Sudan," said Liu.

Source: Xinhua